There is no questioning at this point that Emma Stone is a household name. Between her two Academy Awards, popular titles ranging from Superbad to Amazing Spider-Man, and hosting Saturday Night Live five times, she is one of the world's most popular and recognizable stars. And yet, it's not an uncommon experience in the slightest for people to come up to her in public and confuse her for Harry Potter star Emma Watson.
Lookalike confusion isn't a rare thing, as people have frequently compared the looks of Jesse Plemons and Matt Damon, as an example, but this is kind of a strange one. Stone was recently a guest on the Happy.Sad.Confused. podcast, and when she was asked about the person she was last mistaken for, she explained that, "It's always Emma Watson."
But why? The two actresses are about the same age, but they don't really look anything alike, and it's not as though they have ever starred in a movie together. Could it be that people just look at her, know that her name is Emma, and then just make a faulty connection in their brain that links her with the last name Watson instead of Stone? It's quite odd.
Odd as it is, though, it isn't actually the strangest fan mistake that Emma Stone has experienced. While the Harry Potter star might be the most common error that people make, the Poor Things star recalled a time that someone else made an even wilder blunder. Said Stone,
The day after my 28th birthday, I went to see Alan Cuming perform at like Carnegie Hall, and I was there with my friend Noah and someone came up and we were trying to find our seats and they said, 'Hey, do you mind if I take a picture with you?' And I was like, 'Oh, sorry, we're trying to find our seats,' or whatever. And he was understandably a little pissed, and he goes, 'All right, well, I loved you on Will and Grace.'
Yup: they thought she was Debra Messing. I suppose it was perhaps a bit of redhead confusion, but Stone also happens to be 20 years younger than the popular sitcom star. Laughing, Stone added,
Swear to God. He thought I was Debra Messing. Yeah. He thought I was Debra Messing. I'm still called Debra Messing to this day by Noah. It's been almost 10 years, and I'll always be Debra.
What will it take to finally stop people from making these kinds of mistakes? It's probably impossible – but a third Oscar certainly couldn't hurt, and that may very well be in the cards for Emma Stone. Her latest collaboration with director Yorgos Lanthimos, the dark comedy Bugonia, features another absolutely outstanding turn from the actress, and it's all but guaranteed that we'll be hearing her name plenty during the upcoming awards season. And should you be curious about seeing the new 2025 movie yourself, it's expanding into wide release this weekend – just in time for Halloween.
